Unfussy Wine Enthusiasts | Wine Reviews & Articles

We received this video from Alyssa Graham who is helping to promote Yalumba's Patchwork Shiraz .  We have previously had their 2009 Mawson's Hill Block 3 Wrattonbully Cabernet Sauvignon which we loved ( review here ).  We have also tried their Y Series Shiraz Viognier which we also recall as being a nice wine.  That said, this video combines our favorite topic with something we have always wanted to try but never have...Hot Air Ballooning.  It is a cool look at what a Hot Air Balloon ride over the Barossa Valley might look like and what it looks like is whole pile of awesome!  Someday we'll do it...someday.  It's a quick 2 minutes so give it a watch: As always....Keep on Tasting! Chris & Shannon

We purchased this wine a while ago at a Cristall Wine Merchants  where they were selling this and a Saperavi (Georgian Red) where we had previously done a quick Blog post about ( see that here ).  Coincidently, the Georgian Lelos beat the Oaks of Romania for placement in the 2015 Rugby World Cup yesterday as well.  Go Georgia and good luck against the All Blacks. :) We were talking to a former staffer who gave us some insight on how these Georgian wines came to Nova Scotia and how expensive it was to get them here.  Having to have the wines shipped from Georgia to Germany then on to Canada.  That said, they retailed for less than $20 so it would be interesting to know the wholesale price. The bottle is dark so we incorrectly assumed that would be a golden or amber wine.  In fact, this is a very light colour wine, it borders on clear with a little fizz in the bottom of the glass.  Really interesting look to the wine made even more su...

We picked this wine up on the weekend at Bishop's Cellar here in Halifax. We are pretty positive we have had this wine before but probably in the pre-Blog days.  We continue to love the value that comes with Spanish wines.  Great flavours at reasonable prices are always on order with the wines of Spain.  We love Tempranillo, Monastrell, Mencia, Albarino, Godello, Cava, and the list goes on and on. This is typical Tempranillo which is to say it is light in body but still quite dark red.  It has fairly quick legs in the glass and again in what we would call typical fashion is on the thinner side of things. The nose is very familiar and not just because we think we have had it before.  It just has that Rioja nose, which is spicy white pepper, with cedar notes, and black cherries.  Really nice nose. The wine has really nice tannins with a round mouth feel.  There are black currents, plums, licorice, and vanilla flavours that work thei...

We purchased this Godello on the recommendation of a staff member at Harvest Wines' new store here in Dartmouth.  Yay, our very own private wine shop!  We are HUGE Mencia fans from the Bierzo region of Spain.  Mencia is the red grape of Bierzo and Godello (say it with us Go-Day-Yo) is a main white grape.  Produced by Alvarez De Toledo  at $15 who could say no. The best description of the colour of this wine is straw.  It is light with a touch of gold and it is a super thin almost watery wine on the swirl.  Little blobs of wine stick to the sides of the glass almost like you would see if you had club soda in a glass.  It's not bubbly just really watery. The bouquet (note we have recently come back to using this term) is very light.  A hint of a aromatically perfumed orange blossom and even more it literally smells like Springtime. Fresh and clean with maybe some sweet bee pollen. Maybe we are just tired of Winter...no, no it ...

This wine was a Christmas gift that we just got around to trying. We love Zinfandel and had not had Bonterra since we lived in the US.  We remembered it being a nice wine.  From Mendocino County, this is a popular California wine brand and this is a quality wine.  It is also made from organic grapes (according to the label). The wine is very thick when swirled in the glass.  In fact, there are the slowest legs possible on this wine. They take forever to run down the sides. It is a crimson colour that is so dark and thick you can't see through it in the slightest. A really interesting look to the wine. If you were a red wine drinker you would take notice of the way it looks. The nose is very powerful and even though we didn't decant this wine, it just has a lot of pop. It is hot and slightly sweet bouquet.  The dominant notes are black currents and vanilla and what we would consider a typical Zinfandel nose. The flavour profile is really nice...

We picked this up during our last wine purchases of 2013 at Bishop's Cellar here in Halifax.  We have had another wine from this producer which we reviewed in 2012 .  This wine is slightly less expensive at $16 but the quality is very high.  As a Rhone blend it is 50/50 Grenache and Syrah. The wine is ruby red but slightly thin looking though you can't see through it.  Very nice looking wine but I would say if you had to look at a wine and call it French, this would be it.  That's not a plus nor a minus just a comment on the look of the wine. The nose, however, is wicked-awesome (as our Boston friends might say).  It has a very peppery nose that is all at once oaky and fragrant.  It smells of sumac which is why we immediately thought Lebanese food would pair very well with this wine.  Things like Hummus and Tabouli combined with grilled Lamb would be awesome with this wine.  It is leathery and gives off notes of blueberries or...

As we go through our purchases from the NSLC Port of Wines Festival in September we continue to hit high point after high point.  This wine is another award winner and is a really nice wine. A blend of Negroamaro and Primitivo grapes this wine is made in the appassimento style which is to say that grapes are dried and pressed into the wine.  This is particularly popular with the Italian Amarone della Valpolicella.  It adds a lot of round bold flavours to a wine that can be categorized as a little thin at times.  This wine benefits from that style of winemaking. The wine is a very dark purple with mahogany edge in the glass and has very quick legs on the swirl.  Really nice and it looks older than it is.  You can thank the wine skins for that.  Well done. There is a fiery nose with notes of sugar plums and black pepper.  The beauty of the appassimento style is that body and nose.  Excellent. The body is much larger than if th...